“Okay, they should have judged her by now.”

On top of a mountain, a man is sitting on a huge rock. His green hair is shining under the rising sun. In his right hand, he holds a piece of meat by the bone which is steaming, proof that it was freshly cooked. The source of the meat can be seen on the ground. Uncountable corpses and bones of drakes, small cousins of the dragons.

Although the drakes cannot be compared to the dragons in terms of strength, they are still very powerful opponents that can usually take down five to six good fighters alone. Their sizes and their intelligence aren’t to be taken lightly as well. And yet, four months ago, a single man came to a nest of blue drakes and start killing every single one of them who attacked him.

The slaughter was so impressive on the first day that the drakes left the nest for a month or so. Blue drakes are smarter than other species of drake and their natural talent to use water and wind magic makes them difficult opponents. But, even with all that, they rapidly understood that the first solution would be to flee. However, because of the numerous advantages of their nest, they ultimately had to come back and fight. Sending the strongest of them to be slaughtered and eaten.

Lekas had one goal coming here. It was to obtain the power of the drake’s eyes and breath. Drake’s eyes have the particularity to see curses and demonic powers. Lekas obtained that power as well before when Cald’h had ordered him to wage war against the demonkind. The drake’s breath, however, was not that much useful. Only, it was necessary to be able to use the drake’s breath in order to use dragon’s breath later on. Dragon’s breath allows one to enhance his magic pool naturally and recover his magic exponentially faster than any other method.

In his previous life, Lekas only obtained far later, when he was an accomplished adult. Therefore, even though he regretted that he didn’t know about it, he couldn’t appreciate its benefit.

‘Though I will have to slay a dragon if I want to obtain his power.’ Lekas’s eyes right now are the same as the drakes. Snake-like eyes that have an orange color. But his eyes are not the only thing that has changed. His skin tone has become more shining, on contrary to the pale one that he had one year ago. His body is in a very good shape and he is now taller. His hair are still very long and tied in a horse-style fashion behind his head. They still reach down to his knee as he didn’t take the time to cut them.

Standing up from his rock, Lekas jumps down to the ground, stepping on a drake’s skull which cracks and explodes in a million pieces. The drakes flying around him in the sky, waiting an opportunity to attack, try to attack him, thinking that this could be an opportunity to avenge their fallen comrades.

“Gryaa!”

“Gryaa!! Gryaa!!”

They coordinate their movement as they pounce on the man who has spilled their comrades’ blood without any regret over the past year. But of the three drakes that come down with speed and determination, none survive. They get sliced in half in mid-air.

“Eating your meat for half a year and I only got twenty percent of my magic and strength back. You guys are so weak.”

Saying so, Lekas turns around and teleports to the city of Tirames. It was time for him to see her. Finally, after all this time.

***

“Why did they even let a heretic live for so long?”

“You don’t know. The chosen has appeared in KILAM. The high servants said something about giving her fame.”

“I don’t see how killing a creature unfavored by our great Lord will give more fame to the chosen. I mean, SHE IS CHOSEN. Even that is already more than enough.”

“The high servants have more wisdom than us. If they say it will, who are we to deny?”

In the basement of Tirames church, there is a huge cave that runs even underneath the city. Inside that cave, pillars of stone can be seen here and there, used as support to avoid the collapse of the cave. But one thing, in particular, can be seen, six pillars at the center of the cave, bigger than the others and of a different color: a shiny reddish brown.

In front of each of those pillars, six priests are sitting, eyes closed, meditating. Their magic being slowly drained by the pillars which created a prison for anyone inside. Twenty knights wearing plate armors and holding holy weapons stand guards all day.

All of them are there for only one purpose: to prevent any intruder from getting close to the apostle of destruction. The knights, unlike the priests, don’t really know her identity but they were told to guard her and the priests.

In this place where the only source of light is the light ball cast by the priests, nobody would be able to enter without being seen.

“I just wonder why all the security over a little girl. Look at her trembling.”

“Hey, don’t cross eyes with her or you might get cursed. We do as we always have. Protect and stay on guard.”

“Hey, you guys stay alert. We never know what might happen.” The captain of the guards reminds two of his men of the task at hand. He didn’t know why but he was restless.

“My words exactly.”

Suddenly, an unknown voice resounded in the basement, right above the knights and priests. As the knights shifted their gaze toward the voice, however, the ball of light extinguishes.

“Protect the priests!”

“Formation!!”

“Be careful, he is comin-“

In less than five minutes, no more sound can be heard. Seraphin, who is inside the cage, is so frightened that her teeth start shaking.

CLACK! CLACK!!

Her teeth hitting against each other is the only sound that can still be heard inside the gigantic cave.

What did she do to deserve all that? Why did her life have to turn upside down like this? As those questions were tormenting her, the pillar in front of her gets cut and falls outside.

“You can come out now.”

The unknown voice talked to her. Seraphin feels that what was in front of her was something unholy, something that shouldn’t be trusted, something that should be hated forever. And yet, she stands up and walks. Without knowing why, without knowing how, she walks and goes outside. Then a hand appears in front of her in the darkness and stops. It isn’t the hand of a demon or any kind of bizarre cursed creature but a human’s hand, smooth and elegant. Was it a priest? Or a knight who survived the impossible assault just now? No, that couldn’t be. Then who was it?

“W-who are you?” She finally asked in a trembling and terrified voice.

“Me? I am your future husband.”